The present invention is directed to a checkout scanning system and more particularly to a system for automatically reading bar code labels attached to merchandise items without the items being handled by the checkout operator.
In present day merchandise checkout systems, the use of optical scanners for scanning the Universal Product Code (UPC) labels on purchased merchandise items is quite common. In checkout systems used today, the optical scanner can take the form of a scanner mechanism located in a checkout counter or in the form of a hand-held optical scanner. In either case, the checkout operator will position the bar code label adjacent the scanner. The optical scanner will scan the bar code pattern which forms the UPC label and generate signals representing the bars and spaces of the pattern for transmission to a processing apparatus which determines the character represented by the bar code pattern. The positioning of the merchandise item adjacent the scanner requiring manual intervention by the operator takes time especially when several scanning passes are required to obtain a good read of the bar code label. It would be desirable to provide a scanning system which insures that the bar code label will be scanned automatically irrespective of the position of the bar code label to increase the speed of the checkout operation.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a checkout system which will scan a bar code label on a purchased merchandise item without requiring the checkout operator to handle either the scanning system or the merchandise item during a scanning operation.
It is another object of this invention to provide a checkout system employing a plurality of bar code scanning apparatuses for scanning a bar code label attached to a merchandise item allowing the scanning apparatuses to scan the bar code label without the checkout operator handling the merchandise item during the scanning operation.